Word: khomeini
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They were the two most wanted men in Iran, hunted for "high treason" by the vengeful mullahs around Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. When darkness fell on Tehran on July 28, Abolhassan Banisadr, the deposed President, and Massoud Rajavi, his ally and leader of the urban guerrillas known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (People's Crusaders), slipped on stolen military uniforms and sneaked from their hideout into a small army van. They were driven to a military airfield, passing unrecognized through security controls (Banisadr had shaved his familiar mustache), and boarded an Iranian air force Boeing...
...former President blamed Khomeini, who was once his mentor, for "the appalling disaster that has befallen the country. Said Banisadr: "We must try to find a quicker way of overthrowing the absolutists who lust after power only." The remarks upset French officials, who reminded Banisadr of the terms of his exile and forced him to cancel a press conference...
Other Iranians in exile scorned the idea of joining him in a united front against Khomeini. In particular, Banisadr was spurned by Shapour Bakhtiar, the last Prime Minister appointed by the Shah, who had also taken refuge in Paris. Bakhtiar argued, correctly, that Banisadr had helped build the Islamic Republic of Iran. Said the former Prime Minister: "What is happening to Banisadr is a direct result of what he himself created...
...Their thoughts were not the good-natured, piccolo-accompanied, complaints of "taxation without representation" as advertised by subsequent children's textbooks. Instead, the American grievances with England were more often expressed in anguished and sometimes even irrational terms. Their epithets sometimes more closely resembled the utterings of the Ayatollah Khomeini on the subject of the United States than the pastoral musing we know from Thomas Jefferson. The author of the above passage was not an Iranian "student," nor was he a member of Mao's Red Guard--rather he was an American patriot. His name was Josiah Quincy...
...their bureau branded "a center of conspiracy against the Islamic revolution," leaving the Italian and French as the only major Western news agencies in Iran. The mullahs also remain wary of Banisadr's lingering influence with the army. Amid rumors of military dismay over the mounting chaos, Khomeini ordered a tough new purge of "deviating elements" among the troops. "Any leniency," he said, "will be like showing mercy to a sharp-toothed tiger...